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Reels & Reads: Insurgent

Hello Book Nerds! Welcome to February's (slightly late) installment of Reels and Reads.

What is Reels and Reads? It's a (hopefully) monthly post where I try to compare movies to their books without being too nitpicky (SPOILERS, obviously). After all, we all know that the book is almost always better.

February is all about Insurgent.

Better late than never, right? This was quite a popular title at the library this month, so I had to wait my turn. I loved Divergent, but I just had a hard time getting into Insurgent. The book felt drawn out and I was bored through most of it, but the movie felt rushed.

Let's start with the littlechange that bothered me in a BIG way:

Hmm, little change? I think most of the changes were pretty big: the box, scanning people to see what percent Divergent they were, the wildly different simulations, Tris' rescue... Ugh, I just can't even with this movie.

At least they got the blue armbands of the dauntless traitors right.

Oh, no, I've got it. The little change that bothered me in a big way was Tris' relationship with guns. Book Tris spends most of the book not being able to hold a gun because of the personal demons she is fighting, while Movie Tris is all "Where are the guns? Give me the guns!" Movie Tris also didn't suffer from a debilitating gunshot in the shoulder.

And about the characters...

Who Didn't Make the Cut: The main factionless guy in the movie wasn't supposed to be Edward, right? He didn't have Edward's eyepatch. I was really looking forward to the eyepatch. Marcus, Four's dad, certainly didn't get much screen time. And what about Tori's showdown with Jeanine? Tori is awesome and deserves more time.

Who Show Up More Than Expected: Well, Jeanine is still popping up all over the place. I guess she consumed all of the screen time of the characters who didn't make the cut.

Who Don't Act Like Themselves: I don't know if the movie producers were just trying to cushion the blow of Caleb's betrayal or what, but I am NOT OKAY with the changes they made there. Caleb spilled all of Tris' secrets to Jeanine, not Peter and the super special divergent detector brain reader. There was still a little bit of the feeling of betrayal because Caleb went back to Erudite instead of Abnegation, but still, the knife of betrayal wasn't nearly as sharp in the movie.

Finally, the feelings...
So, the movie did a fairly good job of showing the guilt that Tris was feeling about her parents dying and killing Will (other than the aforementioned gun situation). However, they didn't really deal with Tris' distrust of Four's Mom. Therefore, the tension and secrets between Tris and Four were pretty minimized. While I did get a bit bored with this in the novel, the movie did need a dose of mistrust and secrets.

* * * * *

I was so NOT a fan of this movie. I'll have to take some time away from the story before I read Allegiant. So next month will be something totally different. Let me know what you think! Did you like the movie adaptation? What bothered you the most.

Comments

TOTALLY agree, this was a much worse adaptation than Divergent. It's basically like this: Guns, kissing, fighting, Jeanine Matthews so we can justify paying Kate Winslet, REPEAT for 2 hours.There is SO much more to this series than that, and it makes me sad that they are clearly not showing it. The friendships are basically non-existent. They made Tris out to be some girl who only cares about fighting and hooking up. SO ragey.

That said, I DID like the book. Which is probably why I HATED the movie hahha. Now Allegiant... I wish you luck. I hated Allegiant. Which makes me even more eager to see the movie, because here are the possibilities: 1. The movie will suck worse than the book, making me appreciate the book more.2. The movie will change things, be better than the book, and will make me happier. 3. The movie will suck in ways totally different from the book, I will hate them both, and I will throw concessions at the screen.

Either way, sounds like a good time ;) LOVE your thoughts here- can't wait until you do get around to Allegiant- and whatever next month happens to be!

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